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I am having a blast participating in NaNoWriMo 2015, despite the fact that my word goals are clashing with the demands of real life (and, as you'll see, some unusual circumstance as well)! My first few videos, you can tell I'm just getting into the swing of things, but as the days progress, I add more details about my story-in-progress, I encourage fellow WriMos with some tips I've discovered along the way, and I share meaningful stories from my life that relate to my writing. This week: Discover the special new person in my life!

Read on for an excerpt from this week's progress on The Moonstone!

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Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2015

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 1

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 2

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 3

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 4

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 5

Excerpt from The Moonstone

Note: Katryl is my main character and Jaren is her father. They are trailing a wraith-wolf that attacked Katryl earlier (and that resulted in her first encounter with a man known only as the Stranger).

The night was deep when a strange cry brought both Katryl and Jaren awake instantly. Jaren rolled to his feet, and set an arrow to his bow, though he did not draw. He caught the question in Katryl’s gaze and lifted his chin in the direction of the open forest, beyond the two leaning rocks under which they had sheltered.

Katryl rose into a half-kneel, half-crouch and waited, nocking an arrow to her bowstring silently. The moonless night seemed to taunt with shadow upon shadow, concealing in darkness and mist what diurnal eyes strained to descry.

Then they heard it again—the sound that had summoned them from sleep. It seemed to resonate from a deep throat, more animal than human, yet with a quality that set Katryl’s flesh tingling with some unspoken revulsion and terror.

Then something moved amidst the trees, as though a light half-glimmered. For an instant, as it moved between shadows, the dim light illuminated its white head and the frosted hairs that deepened into twisted greens and browns that resembled the climbing ivies and soft mosses of the spring. The cadence of the green-wolf’s stride was as fluid as water over rock, and it disappeared in another moment, its passage unmarked by any sound.

Scarcely had it disappeared than a similar wolf, but much darker, appeared, traveling at the same rate and in the same direction. Half a length behind it, a third wolf arrived. Katryl caught her breath. The coloring of this wolf was unlike that of the others—it seemed as though every hair shifted from dark to light, from light to dark, as it moved, like light sliding over water. The effect made the creature’s shape more difficult to determine, and it seemed almost like a ripple in the air behind the earth-wolf.

The wolves passed in silent file, sometimes alone, sometimes in twos or threes, unswerving from their mission. They seemed to be in no great hurry, and yet their strides devoured the distance.

Katryl and Jaren remained still for many minutes after the last had passed. At last, Jaren returned his arrow to his bow-hand and sat back.

“Twenty-one,” he said. “That is a large pack.”

“Did you see the water-wolf?” Katryl asked, her eyes alight.​Jaren allowed himself a quick grin. “Aye. Beautiful, was it not? I’ve always wished to see one.”

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? If so, tell me about your project and your progress! If not, what most interested you in this post?

If you like something I wrote here, you are free to share/quote it with credit and a link back to the original page on my website.